Across all geographies, based on their environment and access to fruits, greens, vegetables, spices and ingredients, every culture has its ancestors figuring out some home remedies. I love collating these and this post is dedicated to specifically those remedies from South India.
- Juice of Bermuda grass (Arugampullu) 1/4 oz every day helps build immunity in the body
- Burn turmeric root (raw) and mix the soot with honey and eat it. Cures Hiccups
- Placing a pinch of sugar under the tongue is a local American cure – Interesting!
- One tablespoon ginger juice, mix it with hot water and drinking it helps remove phlegm and clears lungs
- Ginger tea is a prevalent across the world for the same – Removing phlegm and curing nasal blockages – Nice!
- Eating gooseberry regularly helps retain the dark color hair (gray hair reduces)
- In Indian hair oils, gooseberry is usually added – makes sense now 🙂
- Having Cardamom powder mixed with ghee on an empty stomach morning and evening, helps reduce chest phlegm
- Applying equal quantities of tamarind and salt to the tongue (pinch or equivalent) helps cure tonsils
- When kids suffer from tonsils or sore throat or strep throat, standard food is mashed rice and lentils with Rasam (made of tamarind and salt) – makes sense!
- Dry roast cloves and after it cools, chewing and eating 4-5 pieces of it, helps reduce throat infections
- Mix 1 cup curd/yoghurt with 3 cups water and add salt and squeeze a lemon in it. Drinking this version of buttermilk helps reduce blood pressure
- Mash 3-4 cloves of garlic pods with salt. Applying this mixture on a sprain (feet or ankles or anywhere on the body) helps speedy recovery
- Have seen red soil mixed with lemon and calcium carbonate (Sunnambu) mixture heal sprains and hair line fractures.
- Mix freshly ground black pepper pods (1-2) with hot milk and drink it. Helps reduce cough
- Mixing some dry ginger powder (1-2 pinches) helps reduce cough with chest phlegm
Interesting to see how home remedies passed on across generations in specific cultures seem to be similar to those across geographies as well 🙂